Nutshell: “The dog ate my homework”: a quick guide to managing staff absence

Unauthorised absence and persistent lateness can be costly, so we need to know how to manage it with care and consistency.

Absences from work usually take the form of pre-approved holiday, short-term sick leave due to minor illness or injury, or an emergency such as an accident or childcare crisis.

Rare is the worker who has never had to phone in to report a miserable cold or to explain that transport issues have scuppered their journey into the office. Rare also is the person who has never (ever) come up with a fake or exaggerated excuse at least once in their career.

In a survey undertaken by Career Builder, 35% of employees admitted they had ‘pulled a sickie’ in order to catch up on sleep or carry out personal chores, or because they just couldn’t face going into work that day. When hiring managers and HR professionals were asked to share the most outlandish reasons employees had given for needing to miss a day of work, they reported that:

One employee said his wife found out he was cheating, so he had to spend the day retrieving his belongings from the dumpster. Another claimed that his false teeth flew out of the window while he was driving to work. And a third explained that she’d poked herself in the eye while brushing her hair.

The occasional short-lived absence (however suspicious) is generally overlooked. But when absence is repeated or enduring, it needs addressing – not only due to the reduced productivity of the absent individual, but because of the impact on co-workers and client relationships.

While HR may write the strategy around absence, it is us, as managers, who interface between team members and senior management, which means we have a pivotal role in monitoring absence and implementing attendance policies. Through effective day-to-day absence management ­– as an element of wider performance management – we can minimise absence in our teams and create an equitable working environment where it is dealt with in a consistent manner.

Policies should be available to us in writing – for example, around self-certification for sick leave and trigger points for intervention. We should familiarise ourselves with these and define unacceptable limits of absence to our teams (including remote workers), so that everyone understands the boundaries.

Understanding types of absence

Absence essentially falls into the following categories and line managers have a role in all three.

• Planned, authorised absenteeism, for example, annual leave and other paid time off, days in lieu, parental and adoption leave, planned sabbaticals or career breaks, staff development leave, government service leave (such as jury duty), antenatal care and planned medical treatment.
  
  
• Unscheduled, genuine absenteeism, for example, emergency short-term absences or other absences that cannot be planned for, such as illness, accidents, bereavements, family emergencies and impromptu care-giving responsibilities. Also, occasional (justifiable) lateness.
  
  
• Unauthorised absenteeism, for example, choosing not to work without an approved or genuine reason, participating in a strike, and chronic, unjustifiable lateness.
  
  

Planned absences can be managed through workforce planning, reducing pressure on teams and client relationships. It involves keeping on top of requests for annual leave and other scheduled time off to avoid unwieldy overlaps. Where possible, we might also cross-train staff to cover different roles within the team, factoring in freelance or gig workers for busy holiday periods.

It can be harder to plan for those unexpected-but-genuine short-term absences that will always crop up, but they should certainly be monitored and we can reduce some by helping to provide healthy working environments that nurture physical and mental health. For instance, musculoskeletal problems are a leading cause of sickness absence, so we should ensure people have ergonomic workspaces (whether working at home or in the office).

Absences due to mental ill-health may be reduced by effective performance management and establishing a culture of collaboration and psychological safety. By providing early support for people with challenging caring responsibilities or health problems, we may avoid the need for sudden, unplanned absences.

Remote workers’ attendance can be harder to monitor, but establishing clear ‘rules of engagement’ (in terms of working hours and expectations) is a good place to start, while daily online check-ins help with daily structure and motivation. Some organisations use time-tracking software and even GPS tracking for those who are out and about, but such methods can feel invasive and are not an accurate measure of productivity. We need to remember that what really matters is outcomes and outputs, however they are arrived at (within reason).

Tracking absence levels and patterns

All staff should be asked to notify us (ideally by phone) when they are unexpectedly absent, and we should find out why they are off and how long they expect to be out of action. By recording and comparing attendance for all team members, we are able to identify higher incidences of absence, and particular patterns.

There may be company targets around absence that we need to adhere to, plus formal ‘trigger points’ which denote when we should take action. For example, ‘three periods of sickness absence within six months will result in an absence review meeting being held’; ‘for absences that last six weeks or more, the employee will be referred to occupational health to establish further information about the condition and a return to work in the foreseeable future’.

Good communication is the key to understanding an individual’s specific situation. When a person is off for more than a day, checking in with them regularly (without being heavy handed), enables us to ascertain their wellbeing and progress.

On their return, a quick catch up – or more formal ‘return-to-work’ interview for longer absences – will help us to find out more about their specific needs. This isn’t a disciplinary meeting, but is designed to identify the cause of the absence, let the employee know that it has been noted, put absence policies into practice, and brief them about anything relevant which occurred during their absence.

Making reasonable adjustments

Where a person is frequently absent for short periods, it is valuable to ascertain whether this relates to the same underlying health condition or difficulty (such as childcare challenges) and what the organisation could do to help them. Are there any contributing factors that relate to work and, if so, how can we address them with reasonable adjustments?

For example, an employee with young children might benefit from an earlier finish time in order to manage the school pick-ups. A colleague with diabetes may need to take breaks at set times to keep on top of their blood sugar levels, while someone with a chronic back problem might require a standing desk to prevent exacerbation of their condition. Short periods of unpaid leave can sometimes help people with difficult family circumstances or poor mental health. Jointly consulting the person’s GP (with their consent), or an occupational health professional, may help to generate helpful solutions.

If absences persist, we may have to consider reallocation of some tasks and duties, other changes to the person’s role, redeployment to a more suitable position or (if all else fails) dismissal on the grounds of capability. We should call in HR at the earliest opportunity to explore the options and ensure we are following the correct procedure, factoring in the requirements of equality legislation.

Frequent absences that have no clear underlying cause also require investigation to ascertain patterns and solutions. Does a frequent offender tend to be off on certain days of the week or when particular deadlines are due? Do they seem demotivated and unengaged? Do their absences correspond with non-work events such as football fixtures or the run up to bank holidays? Are they persistently late because of genuine transport problems or could they organise their time better to avoid these?

With absences that are both unauthorised and disingenuous, there are disciplinary stages to follow (involving oral and written warnings), with the help of HR. Letting these slide is unfair on the rest of the team who have to pick up the slack on behalf of their colleagues.

Managing long-term absences

Absences tend to become ‘long term’ when they reach 20 days in one calendar month, through precise definitions vary. They might be caused by serious physical illness (such as cancer or an operation requiring a lengthy period of convalescence), mental illness (for example, debilitating depression) or by a bereavement or other significant incident.

If we are given notice of a scheduled procedure, we can look into our colleague’s statutory and contractual rights in advance, exploring any discretion we have to improve these, and discussing the practicalities of their time off and eventual return.

During these – and unplanned – absences, we should keep in contact with our team member to ensure they do not feel isolated, requesting sensitive updates on their progress, while keeping them abreast of any changes to their sick leave entitlement, or risk to their continued employment.

When they are ready to return to work, we should plan this jointly (and in partnership with HR), conducting a return-to-work interview, in which we consider any working patterns and adjustments that may help ease them back into their role. These might include reduced hours, a period of homeworking and a tailored programme of reorientation – all of which should be evaluated once the person is back in their job.

Where a position can no longer be held open, it falls to us to explain these circumstances sensitively, ensuring we are working with HR to follow the proper procedures.

Through all of this we should also be striving to support the other members of our team, who may be faced with extra workload and experiencing low morale in the face of their colleague’s absence.

Rewarding good attendance

Some organisations not only monitor absenteeism, but reward those who show exemplary attendance (for example, with monetary or time-off incentives). This may help to reduce ‘sickies’ but also disadvantages those who have had no choice but to take time off due to poor health or other difficult circumstances outside of their control. It may also discourage people from calling in sick when they are genuinely ill, so that they spread their germs and delay their own recovery. It was particularly unhelpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than defaulting to attendance incentives (which may, in fact, be indirectly discriminatory), the surest way to encourage attendance is to create meaningful work, an inspiring and collaborative culture, and to provide sufficient flexibility to enable people to juggle the complicated elements of their lives. After all, we want people who show up ready to do their best for our organisation, rather than following the route of old-fashioned presenteeism.

Test your understanding

• Give examples of each of the different types of absence that occur in the workplace.

• Explain what we mean by ‘trigger points’ when it comes to addressing absence.

What does it mean for you?

• Review your organisation’s absence policy and consider how you are currently tracking your team’s attendance.

• Reflect on how you could improve elements of your culture or working environment to help reduce absences.